Corps was wrong to issue wetlands fill permit
The Tropical Audubon
Society and National Parks Conservation Association were right to file a
lawsuit last week against the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
The Army Corps issued a
permit to Atlantic Civil Inc. five years ago to fill 535 acres of
wetlands for agriculture. The permit was briefly suspended last fall for
review and reissued in December.
But should the Army Corps
have reissued the permit when the landowner is actively pursuing plans
to build a 6,000-unit development on 986 acres east of Card Sound Road
in Florida City?
That is the question the
two environmental groups are asking a federal judge to decide.
Atlantic Civil and
developer Lennar Homes, which has a contract on the property, have asked
the Miami-Dade County Commission to include the area within the Urban
Development Boundary. Only one home per five acres can be built outside
the boundary, which was created in 1975 to protect wetlands and
agriculture.
Lennar wants to develop
Florida City Commons on Atlantic Civil's mix of farmland and damaged
wetlands. The builder proposes 4,200 single-family homes, 1,800 condos
and townhomes, 300,000 square feet of retail space, 90,000 square feet
of office space, an 1,800-seat movie theater complex, a hotel and three
schools.
The Miami-Dade Commission
forwarded the request for a boundary change to the state for comment in
December.
Clearly, agriculture is
not the goal. The intended use, a mega-development at the gateway to the
Florida Keys, has raised objections from county, state and federal
officials who foresee threats to hurricane evacuation, fresh water
supply and Everglades restoration.
One of the Corps' primary
missions is to protect America's coastlines from storm damage.
The devastation caused in
Louisiana
and Mississippi by Hurricane Katrina provides no better proof that loss
of wetlands, nature's coastal buffer against storm surge, intensifies
human and economic loss.
The Atlantic Civil
property is situated atop the Model Land Basins, just such a natural
buffer between
Biscayne Bay and
South Dade.
The Corps should take a
second look and proceed with extreme caution.
— The Citizen |
